Spring Flowers with lots of May Showers & SNOW!

It has been a long, wet, cold winter!

These were taken April 21st. We are so done with the cold, wet snow.

My poor flower bed.

All of my bare roots. Strawberries, Dalia's and Asparagus.

Every once in a while we get a hint of warmth though.

It is so nice to walk outside and see signs that Spring and Summer really are coming.

We have lived in this house for three years as of April 27th, Luke's birthday. I planted this first flower bed that very first Spring. I brought these Irises from the Annie house.

I have been amazed by this Bleeding Heart, I just planted it last summer and it is already blooming.

Pretty Russian Sage.

I think this is Allium.

These are my FAVORITE Iries.

I brought them from the Annie house but this is the 1st year that they have bloomed. I was so afraid that this variety had not made it through the transplant.

And what is Spring without Lilac? This bush was here when we moved in, but this is the first year that there were enough blooms to actually bring inside. They made the whole house smell wonderful!

Lilac will always remind me of growing up in St. Johns. We had an amazing row of huge old Lilac trees growing out our back door that Pammy and Grandad had planted decades ago. For a few weeks we would bring HUGE bunches in to the house for the dinning room table.

Roger hits the BIG 4 0!

To the love of my life

What a health little baby you were.

ah, so cute!

Lilacs and an adorable little boy!

How come none of our kids got those cute little freckles?

What a proud moment for mom and dad.

And NOW he is 40!

Madisyn thought it would be great to put a full 40 candles on his cake in the shape of a 40.

This is what happened to all of the candles by the time we got them all lighted.

It was still a good cake, just had little frosting left after pulling off all of the wax.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Jake make the cake and I had just picked Roger up from the airport. He was in Mexico for work so we didn't get to throw him a big bash.

The Wind!

What is with this WIND this year. It is like living in St. Johns again. LOL

The trampoline somehow made it through wind storm after wind storm, but finally it met it's match.

This tree has been dead since we moved in and we have talked a number of times about cutting it down. Guess the wind took care of it for us. At least we don't have to figure out how to get rid of the stump. It broke off about 2 feet under ground!

Luke's 4! 4/27/10

Four years ago we were blessed with this amazing little light in our lives.

Year by Year, oh how they grow!

His birthday was a family affair, small quite and enjoyable.

Happy Birthday little Lukey, Happy Birthday to YOU!

mmm... German chocolate

New BIKE! He was so excited to have his own BIG bike to ride.

Sam thought it was pretty cool too. He wants one for his birthday, maybe he will get one. He is using Jake's from 8 years ago and it is getting pretty worn.

BIG BOY! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XOXOXOXO

Boy Scouts Fund Raiser

Spring is here!

That means that Roger and Jake can be found out and about Fernley aerating and thatching peoples lawns as a fund raiser for Boy Scouts.

It is an amazing money maker and has been going on since before Jake was in Scouts. Every year he and Roger devote about 6 of their Saturdays to the event.

This is Jake in the green tee shirt.

With the number of boys they have it goes pretty quickly.

Jake had a lot of fun this year. He was able to drive our old blue truck all over town, feeling cool in front of his friends and the younger boys.

New Laundry Room

You know somethings just taste so sweet after you have waited and waited and anticipated for them.

For the first time in my life including growing up, I have a brand new matching washer and dryer. Can I just say I am in LOVE! They are the Maytag Bravo that I have been watching for well over three years. And finally after a long busy tax season I was able to get them. That and the NV appliance credit.

-That has kept me waiting since last August when I first heard that one might be coming.

The Laundry room is one of only two rooms that had not been painted since we moved in three years ago. So I quicly took care of that the day before my new little sweeties arrived. Ooowee I LOVE RED. This is some of the paint let over from our bedroom.

I guess it could be called the left over room. All of these cabinets were all of the uppers from the kitchen before we remodeled it. Looking at it now I can not believe this is all that kitchen had. No wonder we were in such a hurry to change it.

Good bye old friend.

Spring Break California Trip

Our Spring Break fell within Tax Season so we were not able to take the full week to go somewhere but we did take a Friday and Saturday to go over the pass to Northern CA. We all woke up early Friday and headed over the hill to Old Sacramento. Our first stop was the Railroad Museum. It is a pretty amazing place. Many old passenger cars to tour through as well a multiple engines and other railroad stuff to see. Everyone really enjoyed it. One thing I noticed this trip is how well everyone got along. It is about 3 1/2 hours over there and I don't think there was ANY fighting the WHOLE way. There are certainly benefits to OLDER children.

There were a number of styles of old train stations benches. I thought they were awesome. It is neat that there is a place to preserve all of that beautiful workmanship.

One area was devoted to model train sets. The Thomas the Tank set was a favorite for the little boys. I loved the glass encased area that had five or six running sets of various sizes all set up with landscaping and everything. There is just something about trains that seems to draw everyone in.

After the trains we went for ice cream. MMM Yummy! Except for Sam he got a pretzel for some reason, such a funny boy. I loved this photo of everyone sitting along the board walk.

After wondering around Old Sac for a while we head to our Hotel and of course the POOL!

Jake was being grumpy but he finally joined us.

I somehow forgot my swimsuit!

Still trying to get a little sun though.

Later we went to a nice little Mexican restaurant that was near by. It was a nice little place that was very family friendly.

Outside the restaurant they had all of these great wood carved statues. There were all kinds of huge animals behind the kids are two bears.

Then Saturday we headed East, first stop was the Jelly Belly Factory to get Belly Flops of course.

It was supposed to be in the 70's so we all wore shorts, turned out to be in the 40's!

The next stop was Six Flags. We had never had been before so it was fun even though we froze.

Cute little Lukey.

Thankfully we at least had jackets.

The boys loved the walrus.

Waiting in line for the Thomas the Tank ride.

Silly faces!

Sibling love.

The smart ones that wore pants. We all laughed at them when we were packing but then were so jealous all day.

Jake and some girl. He went on lots of rides all by himself. The rest of us were chicken.

Good times.

Fun Shows.

Cute little pilots.

My boys are on each end.

I LOVED the Butterfly House.

The end of a long fun day.

Jake's last ride. You sure would not catch me on it!!!!!!!